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Update on Koko and her "Kittens" ( The Power of Empathy )

Posted On: April 18, 2018
Date Taken: April 18, 2018

Videographer: Ronald Cohn

Koko has taken care of many kittens, and helped raise them to become healthy cats, over the years. Yet, she continues to start over each time with as much enthusiasm as she had when she first adopted "All Ball" (who she named) 30 years ago. See how she's doing with her latest feline friends, Ms. Gray and Ms. Black, whom she adopted only a couple of years ago. Koko has become a role model for both interspecies communication and empathy.

Fortunately, she is not unique — all gorillas have the same intrinsic capability to gesture meaningfully and care about others who are often quite different than themselves. This observation has the potential to save all endangered great apes, and to enrich our relationships with them in captivity!